Browsing August, 2012

Editor’s Note: This is an update from the field by Janaki Srinivasan who is currently researching the fishing industry in Kerala, India and the use (broadly) of tools and technologies ranging from trawlers, nets, and GPS to the mobile phone. Her project is funded by the Institute for Money, Technology, and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI)

I read about the fishworkers’ demonstration on several mailing lists. A fisherman in Kollam (James) had also informed me about it. The demonstration was supposed to be held in front of the Secretariat in Trivandrum.

A little past 10.30, I saw 80-100 people, men and women, walking up to a lane by the Secretariat building in Trivandrum. They were chanting slogans and held up blue flags. They formed a circle and a wooden model of a ship was placed at the center. The model had “Foreign Fishing Vessel” painted on its side. Many press photographers attended the event and were busy documenting it with photographs and by talking to people. A fisherman friend told me that the demonstration was aimed primarily to show displeasure at the Central Government’s decision to issue 77 letters of permit to foreign fishing vessels. The permits allowed these vessels to fish in Indian waters. The Kerala Swatantra Malsya Thozhilali federation, an independent trade union of fishworkers in Kerala was organizing this demonstration on “Quit India” day, August 9th, 1942 being the day that the Quit India movement started, telling the British to leave India. Today too, the protestors were asking the foreign vessels to “Quit India.” Such demonstrations were being held in various coastal cities and had been called for by the National Fishworkers Forum, of which the KSMTF was a part.

Why were foreign fishing vessels so unwelcome among these fishworkers, all of them artisanal fishworkers? (i.e., they worked with small boats, not trawlers). As the fishermen and their leaders who spoke at the event explained, foreign fishing vessels were big enough and had enough equipment that they could deplete the waters of fish for the artisanal fishermen. Moreover, because of the nature of the equipment they used, especially the nets, the ecology of the areas they traveled could potentially be drastically affected.

The high point of the demonstration was the burning of the ship model. As the model went up in flames, fishworkers chanted slogans of Inquilab Zindabad (Long Live the Revolution). The women sang revolutionary songs and some of those attending danced around the fire.

A second infographic from Ivan Cole’s website, Afrographique, features a topic that came up in several interviews with market women, specifically cloth traders, in Ghana: China’s influence in African trade.

According to ChinaDaily.com, China’s trade with Africa in the first half of 2012 expanded much faster than China’s overall foreign trade. During the first five months of this year, China’s imports from Africa rose by 25.5% to $49.6 billion, while its exports to Africa grew by 17.5% to reach $30.9 billion. The above infographic depicts a macro-view of the nature of this trade, indicating that Africa exports mainly mineral fuels, crude material and manufactured goods to China while importing primarily machinery and manufactured intermediary and consumer goods.

In our interviews with Ghanaian market women, we learned about some of the implications of this trading boom on a micro-level. A Ghanaian cloth seller whom we talked to said that Chinese competition has made the cloth trading business much more difficult. Locally manufactured cloth is often unable to compete with much cheaper, imported Chinese cloth.

An infographic depicting the percentage share of formal firms that are owned by women in Africa. Data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys (2006-10)

Ivan Colic, art director at Zoom Advertising Cape Town, uses infographics to tell stories about a side of Africa that the press mostly neglects to tell. On his blog, Afrographique, he visualizes the continent’s incredible innovation, entrepreneurship schemes, art and history. This particular infographic depicts the percentage share of formal firms that are owned by women in Africa (based on the World Bank Enterprise Surveys 2006-10). Noteworthy is that female entrepreneurs own nearly 50% of firms in Ghana. The 30% of female-owned firms in the US in 2007 (US Department of Commerce) pales by comparison. On this site, we’ve profiled female entrepreneurs such as the cloth seller at Makola Market in Accra, Ghana. For more profiles of women who’re working in other sectors, see for example, Business Insider’s Profile of Africa’s Top 5 Entrepreneurs.

A new profile, the first in a series that will offer rich context about the lives and livelihoods of farmers, fishermen, and traders. This profile deals with a man who fills the (often maligned) role of middleman …Read The Profile…

The film “For the Best and for the Onion!” (2008) by Nigérien documentary fillmmaker Sani Elhadj Magori was screened last week at Stanford University as part of the summer film festival on “Feast to Famine: Global Politics of Food and Water” organized (in part) by the Center for African Studies.

Market prices, and their uncertainty and fluctuation, are a central element of the plot. Market price is a matter on which consequential outcomes hinge. Yaro, the main character, is adversarial with everyone, his wife, his farm laborers, the middleman who comes to buy his onions, a man embattled and under stress. A wedding and the happiness of a young couple hang in the balance. The future bride Salamatou and her fiance are having a less expensive “Abidjan wedding.” They will migrate to the city and thus will not need furniture as is continually noted throughout the film. Yaro reminds himself of this and yet the possibility of financing such an event is a source of pressure and anxiety. The young couple has already had to wait through one season as the onion crop failed. A relative of the groom goes to Salamatou’s family, speaking with her mother, and pleads for the process to be sped up, concerned with the social appearance and dignity of all involved.

Market prices and timing: Yaro consults periodically with a middleman. In the first scene where he appears, the middleman offers a price 18,000 and advises him to take it. The price was 20,000 before, he comments, and even higher, but has gone down a bit. Yaro betting on a better price and bigger profits later on decides to wait. The middleman advises against it, better to sell now in case the prices go down. He tells Yaro he will return the next day, to give Yaro a chance to think it over, but Yaro is resolute in his decision…he will not sell, not yet.

On the farm, a farmer sings energetically to his onions while pulling water from a well, sending it down irrigation canals to feed the onions. “You onion, wife of all men” he sings. As in Gracia Clark’s book on market women in Ghana, Onions Are My Husband, the onion is an intimate of the farmer, to be protected (as a wife) or to be well-treated so that it will provide (as a husband).

Market prices fall. Next the price is 13,000. Yaro is disturbed. He waits. The prices decline further, they are now 11,000 <the audience at the screening gasps>. At that price finally, and with resignation, he sells. The broader context of domestic and global economy is no more than a fuzzy backdrop to the intimate and immediate exchanges. The middleman reminds him that he urged him to sell when the price was 18,000. Another advisor blames the area farmers for being impatient, for emulating neighbors, for lacking responsibility. But what may happen to the price is a mystery and the farmer is at its mercy.

The story has a happy ending. We see Salamatou and her new husband boarding a bus. The wedding has finally taken place (despite the poor price for the onions) and they are headed to Abidjan. We do not know what compromises were made, corners cut, or loans borrowed. The young couple leaves farming life behind for better prospects in the city.